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Greetings!

As a management team, one of your most critical functions is determining how best to relate to your customers. You must appropriately develop  customer-oriented strategies, develop your employees to create and sustain customer relationships, design and implement customer-friendly policies/processes, and continuously improve and constantly monitor your progress for the issues that are most important to your customers. You can create loyal customers by providing a positive emotional tie during every interaction even if it seems insignificant. A customer's experience is inherent, a positive experience is not.

Wishing you continuous success,
 

David Hildreth

BOOST Associates

Creating a New Normal
  

Is your business stuck? Many businesses of many sizes have spent the last year dealing with the challenging times. Some businesses have failed, many are still floundering, and many businesses are just stuck. Often when we are defensively forced to deal with outside forces we get so ingrained in our defensive mechanics that we get stuck in that mind set. Defensive mechanics will not lead to positive growth and/or results. There is no question the business world is in the process of creating a new normal. The question becomes how is your business creating and defining its new normal? What will positive growth and future success look like for your company?

 

It has been my experience that creating a new normal requires going back to basics. Here are some thoughts to consider that have helped our clients get unstuck:

  • What is the basic foundation and business philosophy of your company?
  • Why are you in business?

The answer to these two questions will reconfirm or re-establish the reasons your business exists and provide a much needed guidepost. After you reconfirm or re-establish the reasons your business exists take the time to review your vision and values.

 

Tom Peters said, "A clear vision of the desired future state of the organization is an essential component of high performance." Creating a new normal requires re-evaluating your vision of the desired state. Based on the changes in the current business climate, what will your organization look like in the future? The vision statement provides focus for everyone in the organization. An understanding of the vision provides the foundation for day-to-day decisions. A vision energizes action, toward a future that is better than today. How does your company's vision need to change? There is one universal rule in success: you will never be greater than the vision that guides you. Perhaps for your organization, getting unstuck requires revitalizing your company's vision.

 

In addition to a clear vision a successful company needs to communicate values and principles by which they do business. Values represent your philosophy for achieving success and they serve as important guidelines for everyday behaviors and decisions. How have recent changes in the business world impacted your values and principles? What does your organization believe to be true and non-negotiable today? As Peter Drucker said, "The purpose of an organization is to attractand maintain customers in order to generate profits and viability." Issues such as current customer's expectations, product quality, and service should be taken into consideration in your values statement. Your values should take into account how you feel about and the value you place upon your customers, your employees, your suppliers and vendors, stockholders, the community and all others with whom you interact and do business.

 

Re-evaluating your vision and values are the first two steps to revisiting your strategic direction. We have found in these ever-changing times that strategic planning is no longer a discretionary decision, and it provides the impetus to getting unstuck. Create your business's new normal by re-evaluating your strategic plan and implementing the critical success factors that will propel your business forward. There is a very high likelihood that what you are doing today and what you did yesterday will not produce the results you want to see tomorrow.


Emotions Play an Important Role in Everyday Behavior

There is no thought, behavior, idea, or attitude that does not have a related emotional counterpart. Often times in the business arena, various forms of emotions are frowned upon. But, the reality is emotions do exist and do impact communications no matter how subtle. As often as it is said emotions do not belong in business, they will always be there. The intent of this information is to alert you to the importance emotions play in our everyday lives, and how a successful leader can create a productive and focused working climate while dealing with the reality of emotions.

 

As you interact with your staff or team, you begin to build up certain expectations of each other's behaviors and reactions. In any relationship between two people who have been in continuous interaction over a period of time, certain tolerable limits of emotional communication are established. There are certain ways of saying things which must be slightly altered to fit varying situations. For example, you may not talk to your children the same way you talk to your partner; you may not talk to your superior in the same way that you talk to a team member, and so forth. In some instances, these behavioral responses are simply a matter of courtesy and respect for the other person. In some cases, they stem from a fear of undesirable results.

 

Constantly avoiding dealing with your feelings can build up a stockpile of pent-up emotions. It can create a festering problem which when it does find expression, exhibits itself in ways that are harmful, hurtful, and destructive to a relationship. This repression and lack of adequate expression is not limited only to negative emotions such as anger but also applies to positive emotions such as love. We must develop a way to widen the tolerable limits of emotional expression, so that the problems associated with restraint and repression is diminished. By understanding human behavior, you will be able to identify emotionally based problems which emerge in the everyday operations of the organization. Effective management demands that you deal with emotions on a rational basis.

 

The key to managing emotions within your team is the environment. The culture that you create and maintain provides the platform for how you and your team deal with situations when they arise. Throughout most of our lives, we have developed ways to express disappointment, anger, and discontent in somewhat less than honest terms. We have learned, through experience and conditioning, that exhibiting hostility can prove ineffective in solving our problems with others. Instead of confronting situations head on we circumnavigate the stormy waters by using what we have come to believe are more socially acceptable forms of expression. This can be very functional behavior, up to a point, since a continuously abrasive and complaining individual soon finds no one around with whom to become hostile. On the other hand various negative feelings need expression as well. Emotions, if left unexpressed, or if expressed irrationally inhibit progress in improving relationships. Honest, open communication is necessary for a results-oriented working environment. To do so, you must create trust, concern, and a mutual commitment with your people. These ideas when implemented correctly will help create a productive culture.

 

Create a culture that encourages your staff members to come directly to you and discuss, share, or brainstorm a situation with which they may be dealing. Whether they need an avenue for emotional expression or they are on the receiving end of a distracting situation and want to brainstorm possible solutions, make yourself available.

I hope you have enjoyed what you've read! Please feel free to with a colleague or friend. We value your feedback, so please send any suggestions or comments to [email protected]. See you next month with special invitations to events, motivational quotes, and more useful articles and tips to help you on your path to success!

 

Sincerely,

 

David Hildreth

 

BOOST Associates
In This Issue
Creating a New Normal
Emotions Play an Important Role in Everyday Behavior
David Hildreth
David Hildreth

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"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."
 

- Peter Drucker Warren Bennis